Having reached the semi-final stage of the Cup-Winners’ Cup in season 1963/64, Celtic went into the Fairs Cities Cup of the following season with fans’ hopes really high.
Leixoes of Portugal were the opponents in round one and they were dispensed with 3-1 over the two legs.
For the first match in the second round, Celtic travelled to Spain, to Catalonia to be precise, where they met Barcelona in the Camp Nou on this day in 1964.
Celtic decided to go for a holding operation, with Ian Young on the right back position and Tommy Gemmell on the left; John Cushley was alongside Billy McNeill at centre-back; while both John Clark and Jim Kennedy were also in defensive positions.
In goal, the experienced Ronnie Simpson, after a long career with Queen’s Park, Third Lanark, Newcastle Utd and Hibs, was making his club debut.
But on the night, in spite of all the precautions to keep the goal intact, Barca were too good, particularly on their home turf and won 3-1, John Hughes the scorer of Celtic’s only goal.
Peter Shevlin – born on this day in 1905 at Wishaw – started his career with spells at Pollok Juniors and St Roch’s Juniors where his goalkeeping caught the eye of the Celtic scouts and he signed for the club on 11 October 1924.
Over the following three seasons, Peter made 103 appearances for Celtic, with 36 shut-outs, a 36% ratio and was between the sticks on that famous day in 1925 when Celtic beat Dundee 2-1 in the Scottish Cup final.
In 1927 he went on the move firstly over the border to South Shields, then across the water to Shelbourne – where he took on a player/manager role – before coming back to Scotland with spells at Hamilton and Albion Rovers.
Peter Shevlin died at Manchester on 10 October 1948 at the age of 43.
Jim Craig
